The spying is so extreme that the original sponsor of the Patriot Act, Republican Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, is urging colleagues to sign a letter asserting that they will vote against reauthorization if the law is not amended to ban mass surveillance.

Without the brave sacrifices of whistleblowers, most famously Edward Snowden, we would have no idea of the extent of the government’s mass spying. This fall, The Nationspoke with Snowden about the surveillance state, the American political system and the price he’s paid for his understanding of patriotism.